The present invention is directed to methods and systems for off-loading computational tasks among mobile devices in a network to conserve on energy usage that maximize the minimal well-being of all mobile devices participating in the network.
Users rely on smart phones for performing an increasing number of computing tasks. Different factors, including the ubiquity of Internet connections, have transformed mobile devices, such as smart phones, from being a supplementary computing device to being the main one for some users. One of the main factors that slow down the aforementioned transformation is the limited battery life of smart phones. Lithium-ion batteries, for example, provide limited computational power, which decreases each time a computing task is performed. Therefore, a main problem in the field is how to allow users to perform more computing tasks without running out of battery.
Some approaches to solving this problem use an off-loading technique to maximize battery life. Off-loading involves moving computational tasks from a mobile device to another computer, e.g. other mobile devices, a desktop computer, or server. To date, off-loading is performed on a relatively ad hoc basis and does not employ a global strategy for ordering and prioritizing computational tasks among the participants in a network. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an off-loading process that provides for an orderly, prioritized off-loading of computational task across a network of the mobile device that are participating in the off-loading process in order to fairly maximize battery life across all devices.